Seimas passes bill to vet large deals by strategic companies

The parliament passed on Friday the respective amendments, which will take effect on March 1, with 81 votes in favour, none against and six abstentions.

Large transactions will have to be declared not only by state-controlled strategic enterprises, but also by three large privately-owned companies, namely Orlen Lietuva, Achema and Telia Lietuva.

The commission will have 10 days to decide if to scrutinize a transaction and will have the right to ban it if necessary.

However, the managers and employees of Orlen Lietuva, Achema and Telia Lietuva will not be vetted for possible links to foreign hostile services and criminal structures.

Vytautas Bakas, chairman of the parliament’s Committee on National Security and Defence, admitted that the latter decision was a bow to the three companies.

“Perhaps we made some concessions to private enterprises,” Bakas said, adding that the Seimas had to do so in order “not to derail the adoption of the law and not to cause even more problems”.

“We’ll speak about private enterprises at a later stage”, he said.

The amendments will apply to Oro Navigacija (Air Navigation), international airports, nuclear power plants, the Klaipėda seaport, public data transmission network operators, the Epso-G Group, the Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) Group, Klaipėdos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil), Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) and other companies.